Continuing the conversation in DC…

My sister and I haven’t spent one-on-one time together since we were kids until this week. Thanks to my frequent flyer miles accrued on trips to Israel, I was able to go spend a few days with her just hanging out in her adopted hometown of Washington, DC.

When we were growing up, we were often rivals instead of allies. As we entered adulthood, we began talking through our shared childhood experiences – to begin fitting our jigsaw pieces together, to mourn, and, as a sign that growth and healing took place in our lives, to laugh together. As our mom was dying four years ago, all the talking Jodi and I had done throughout the years coalesced as we were thrown into a crisis we could never have imagined or prepared for.

We packed a lot into the last few days – museums, movies, a hike and even a cooking lesson. But the best part of the whole trip was the fact that we continued the conversation that began the day she was born.

What's a trip to DC without stopping by to see Dorothy's red shoes at the Museum of American History?

I wonder if the Watergate burglers ever imagined their handiwork would be on public display?

The original Food Network - Julia Child's kitchen

This freaked me out big time: A Voyager mini-van in the Museum of American History. I drove one of these, sans the faux wood panels. How is it that I am old enough to have a car I once drove now featured in a MUSEUM?

Jodi and I, in front of the source of lots of fun summertime moments - the Good Humor truck.

Jodi frequents the same Starbucks every day, and they write her name on the cup before she even says 'hello'.

A memento from one of the most depressing moments in history, at the Air & Space Museum at Dulles.

It is hard to believe that this technology got humankind to the moon.

Jodi, at Breaux Vineyards

So beautiful.

Though this looks like a scene from a horror movie, it is in fact a Red Velvet cupcake purchased at Eastern Market and cut in half. Our mom used to do this with Twinkies.

@ the National Gallery of Art, close-up of Thomas Cole's 'The Voyage of Life: Youth'. Cole's series of four paintings (Childhood, Youth, Manhood and Old Age) took my breath away, and gave me food for thought for the rest of the trip. More on these paintings later.

Jodi is a video editor at CNN's Washington bureau. She just celebrated her 20th year with the network.

In Leesburg, VA, outside of a place that purports to sell Chicago-style hot dogs. (We ate somewhere else.)